The burrowing critters and winter storms have cause 'rock instability' on the fragile Unesco world heritage site

By Anne Lucey

20th April 2017,6:12 pm

Updated: 20th April 2017,6:12 pm

Star wars fans hoping to follow in the footsteps of Luke Skywalker and Rey might be out of luck as burrowing bunnies might cause Skellig Michael to be closed for the tourist season.

The Unesco world heritage site suffered a second major rockfall earlier this month and now the Office of Public Works has declared the site unsafe to visitors due finding a “number of large rocks that have become unstable”.

Skellig Michael has been used as a filming location for Star Wars: A New Hope

The instability on the fragile site has been blamed on recent winter storms and rabbits burrowing under the dry rocks, rather than on the filming activity or the extra visitor numbers drawn to the monastic site because of its prominence in the most recent Star Wars episodes.

Unless these rocks are cleared the opening date for tourists to visit the island, May 14th, will remain in doubt.

“Options being considered include possibly bringing down this unstable material in a controlled fashion to mitigate the risk of further material shedding in a future displacement,” said an OPW spokesperson.

“As of the last report (Wednesday), [workers]… have carried out a visual survey of the slopes above the area where the rockfall occurred and started to fix ropes and harnesses in place to enable them to traverse the mountainside in this location to examine the position in closer detail.”

At this stage in their investigation, the OPW said it was not possible to be definitive about the May opening date but that they “remain cautiously optimistic that it will be achieved.”